Material appears flat in render
There are three main steps to any 3D project, you have Modeling where you create the actual geometry and polygonal detail. You have Shading, which is creating the materials/shaders, and then you have Lighting which defines how all the previous parts interact to make a final image.

I think your issue in this instance is you have an object (modeling) and a material (shading) but your lighting is off. Here is an example:

Here the lamp is one unit from the surface of the plane, light has a sharp falloff and is very bright.



Here is the exact same scene, with the same lamp moved up one unit. The falloff is much softer and any reflections and shadows will be softer as well.



Based on these examples, it is easy to see that the position of your lamps is very critical to how your scene will end up even if your modeling and shading is perfect. Sadly lighting is a very in-depth topic and isn't really within the scope of this site, but feel free to check some of the linked references below.



Helpful links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgAySB7DoOc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-N149FMlWk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o0PauhFQyo